Saturday, January 10, 2009

Thursday's Tulane Visit.....

Hi guys...

Well, we spent the ENTIRE day at Tulane Cancer Center on Thursday. Apparently the first few visits that ran like clockwork were a fluke. Oh well.... was good while it lasted!

Met first with Dr. Safah. Dom mentioned to her that he had gained weight in the past month, but said, "Doc- look at how skinny my arms are getting! How could I have gained weight?".

She smiled and poked him in the stomach. I think his feelings were a little hurt, as he has quite the crush on her. (of course, he'd never admit it, but she really is a knockout!).

She went on to tell him that he was "DOING GREAT!". That was nice to hear.

Then, on for his Aredia infusion.

Left the house at around 8 am, and didn't return home until ater 5pm. A long, long day.
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OK.....here's the latest scoop:

On THURS, JAN 29th, we'll be returning to Tulane for lab work. The "magic number" for Thalidomide to start showing its' stuff is FOUR MONTHS. The 29th will be 4 months and 2 weeks of treatment.

What they're looking for is a T-CELL SPIKE in his blood. T-Cells are white blood cells that are our bodies' "soldiers". They go after infections, invaders (lesions, renegade plasma cells, etc.)
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One week later, on THURS, FEB 5th, we have an appointment with Dr. Safah. She will have gotten the lab results in, and we'll have an idea of what's next. Which will be WONDERFUL. Honestly, we feel like a couple of dummies- had assumed that Dom would be hospitalized this month for the transplant, blah, blah, blah.

It will be nice to finally know SOMETHING.
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Our patient is doing well today. Sipping on a beer and making phone calls. Yesterday, as expected, he spent the entire day/night in bed. HOWEVER, I'm thinking that his body is building up a resistance to the Aredia. He wasn't nearly as beat-up yesterday as he had been prior months.
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That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Love to all of you-

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